Radiation delivered to patients during endourological surgery – are they overexposed?

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Introduction: Ionising radiation is commonly used in urological practice in the form of fluoroscopy. To date there is a remarkable scarcity of information concerning patient exposure to ionising radiation during urological procedures and the potential risk of developing of a lethal malignancy due to excessive radiation exposure. Objectives: We aimed to determine the radiation exposure for a patient during the most commonly performed urological procedures, and to assess the potential risk of developing a fatal cancer as a result of endourological fluoroscopy. Methods: Data was collected prospectively in two institutions on endoscopic urological operations. Procedures were classified as retrographic, semi-rigid ureteroscopic and flexible ureterorenoscopic (FURS). Data collected included procedure type and difficulty, Dose Area Product [DAP (Gy*Cm2)]. The effective dose (ED) measured in millisievert (mSv) was determined from the DAP by using the Monte Carlo calculation. Results: In total 395 consecutive operations from two institutions were assessed. The mean ED for all procedures in this study was 0.394 mSv, IQR (0.1184–0.7583). The maximum ED was 5.93 mSv. The radiation exposure for all procedures was relatively small; for diagnostic retrographic procedures the median ED was 0.112 mSv. For retrograde procedures that involved stent insertion, the median ED was 0.438 mSv. The median ED for all ureteroscopic surgeries was 0.295 mSv, and the median ED for all FURS procedures was 0.491. Conclusion: The findings of this study are reassuring. Endoscopic urological procedures appear to expose patients to relatively small radiation compared with other procedures requiring fluoroscopy, thus conferring a very low lifetime risk of malignancy.